


On the Beach

by tatooedlaura



Series: Life, Part 2 [38]
Category: The X-Files
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 18:55:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13060089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tatooedlaura/pseuds/tatooedlaura
Summary: the ocean is always a good place to wait ...





	On the Beach

Mulder desperately wanted to tell Scully to lay down every chance he could, take the elevator, put her feet up, don’t jiggle their potential child.

She finally yelled at him for his hovering in a loving manner and he told her what was on his mind in a sheepish manner and she smiled in an amused manner and kissed his face, “I’m debating sitting upside down on the couch and not moving for the next two weeks so I understand completely.”

He kissed her face back.

&&&&&&&&&&

Just when she’d get used to the idea of what might be percolating inside her insides, she’d catch Mulder staring at her, look falling somewhere between sappish romantic and panicking deer in headlights. He’d notice her noticing and attempt in a failing way to look like he was sorting paperwork or signing something or sharpening a pencil, but as with all Mulder fumbling, he’d crash and burn, ending up with a grin the size of the room and twinkling eyes dropping back to her stomach region, hoping his x-ray vision would finally kick in.

They got nothing done that day or the next until finally Scully gave up, “hey, you want to get out of here?”

Mulder flopped back in his chair, sending himself several feet back on rolling wheels, “holy hell, yes. Where are we going?”

“I was thinking the beach.”

And the stars aligned and the world stopped and Mulder’s insides jumped at the prospect of the perfect surprise, “I have an idea then.”

In the car and heading southeast an hour and twenty later, “where in the world are we going to find a place to stay on the North Carolina shore at the end of August and I am not, and I repeat, not sleeping on the beach.”

“I got us covered. It’s all arranged and you will not be sleeping on a beach.”

“Are we going to be two of twelve in a house of frat boys and half-naked coeds?”

“Why? You like that kind of thing?”

She smacked him fairly hard on the arm, “don’t mess with me. I’m getting hungry.”

“Food, gotcha.”

During their six-hour drive, they talked, they slept, though not at the same time, they ate, thank God in Mulder’s opinion and he cheerfully diverted every question she asked about lodging, Scully finally dropping the subject when Mulder told her he’d leave her in the wilderness next time if she didn’t quiet down about a bed and a shower.

It was quite dark by the time they rolled into Kill Devil Hills and Scully, keeping her promise, shut her mouth and began calculating how she could get comfortable in the Jeep.

Then he turned down a familiar road, slowed at the end of it and finally stopped completely, “um, Mulder, how in the world did you manage to rent Babar with seven hours’ notice?”

“Oh, I didn’t rent her.”

“Then are we just going to sleep on the porch of whomever rented this place and hope they feed me bacon in the morning?”

“Nope.”

She really wondered why she didn’t throttle him more, “where are we staying, Mulder?”

A set of keys flew in her direction, “here.”

“You infuriate me.”

He laughed, getting out of the car and coming to her side, opening the door and reaching across her to undo her seatbelt, “come on, let me show you our house.”

Sliding to the sandy ground, she began to suspect the unsuspected, “our house?”

As he took her hand, “so I kind of bought it last time we were here.”

Concrete feet, unmoving, “you … bought … this place? With money? And paperwork? And … and … and you bought this place?”

Embarrassment overtook him for a moment as his head dropped, foot digging into the dirt, “you liked it and I liked it and then you went to autopsy that body and left to my own devices, I bought the house.”

Scully looked from him to the gray, shadowed house, the sound of the waves completing the peaceful poignancy of his purchase, “we’re going to have to clean it. It’s probably dusty.”

Sweeping her up in a hug, he didn’t squeeze for fear of displacing possibly offspring, “you don’t think I’m delusional?”

Half a lip turn upwards, idea of having a summer cottage on the ocean sinking in fast, “I never said that but I don’t have to sleep in the Jeep and for that I am truly thankful.”

Reaching for her hand again, this time holding on tight, he led her up the stairs, “come on. Let’s go see the house.” She remained silent for longer than Mulder was comfortable with and panic set in as he shuffled behind her, viewing the place they’d spent a week of their lives at with an entirely new eye. Giving her four more minutes of ear-ringing quiet, “okay, what’s wrong?” Wrong was not one of the words flowing through her brain, contemplating knowing it was his house, him calling it their house and already slipping, with ease, into thinking of it as ‘our’ house. Not sure how to deal with that just yet, she headed to the back windows, gesturing with waving fingers for him to follow. Once there, she waited until he invaded her space, pressing against her back, chin to the top of her head, resting while he asked her quietly, “are you okay with this?”

“That’s the problem, Mulder. I’m more than okay. I’m only having the slightest issue with you calling it our house and that’s kind of making me a little …”

“Wonky?” filling in the word she was searching for.

With a head nod to the affirmative, “yeah, that’ll work for the time being.”

Arms weaving around middle, hands resting twined on belly, “I was looking for the perfect way to surprise you with it and then stuff happened and things occurred but now we’re here and please tell me you like the house still and want to share it with me when we’re old and gray and I need to see you in a bikini and you are not repulsed by my balding ways.” By now, Scully’s forehead was against the glass of the window, shoulders shaking in low-key laughter and feeling her vibrating against his chest, he smiled as well as kissed the exposed long stretch of her neck, feeling warm skin beneath warmer lips, “you find me funny?”

“I find you startlingly endearing and if you keep your mouth where it is, I am going to end up doing things that we shouldn’t be doing while we’re waiting for other things to work.”

He stopped his mouth from doing more things and bunched her t-shirt up in his fists, tugging lightly, “I think we should go up to the bed and not do the things but sleep without the clothes ‘cause halfway there is halfway not.”

“Math agrees with you.”

Later on, after things were emphatically denied but clothing was definitely discarded in favor of balmy breeze over slowly cooling skin, “do you think there’s a baby in there somewhere?”

Insecure fears came out in droves with that ending question mark, “what if there is? What if there isn’t? What if all four take? What if none do and I’ve got nothing left and …? What if …” She left that last one dangling as she scrunched her eyes up, burying her head in the pillow, groaning loudly into cotton muffling, “why can’t it be two weeks from now and over and done with?!”

Mulder, not the best with words at times, decided Scully needed more touch than talk, his hand slipping lightly over her side, grazing ribs, shoulder wing a momentary stop before he wrapped his fingers gently around the back of her neck, nudging her forward until his mouth found hers, sublimating her fears with kisses and the occasional murmur of adoration.

&&&&&&&&&

The next morning, a low rumble of thunder woke him up, second pillow empty, cold to the touch. Apparently, she’d been up awhile and stretching before standing himself, he shuffle-stepped down stairs, amused he had two working legs to do it instead of scooting on his butt and a prayer. Cracking his toes just for fun, he spotted her sitting form hunched around pulled up knees, on the stairs leading off the deck. Gravitating towards her as he always did, regardless of situation and space, he made enough noise not to startle her but not enough to disturb the shadowed morning surrounding them. As he sat, his voice low, “’morning. I missed you when I woke up.”

“I don’t tend to wander too far off anymore.”

“Still missed you.”

Locking elbows with him, she settled her head on his upper arm, keeping an eye on ominous clouds rolling in the distance and churning ocean, “I missed you, too. Been thinking really hard about you waking up and here you are. Score one for psychic links.”

“You just made my week, woman.”

With a chuckle, she switched instantly to serious mode, whiplash imminent for the less practiced but Mulder kept up in stride, “sorry about last night. I let my nerves win.”

Drifting a hand to her inner knee, “I love you whatever way you are: nervous, elated, giddy, despondent, gruesome, ugly as sin covered in poo, so breath-taking I never want to blink again, and I am going to keep telling you this, over and over, until it sinks into that beautiful, thick skull of yours.” Lips to aforementioned skull, “we are us … always … whether we have a kid, don’t have a kid, get married, don’t get married … I promise to hold your hand forever and thank God, stars, mythological beings, the maker, the creator, Buddha, Allah and everything in between that I am yours and you are mine.”

“So I should just forget about it for awhile and demand breakfast?”

“Yes, that is exactly what I’m saying.”

Standing, she turned, swung a leg, settled on his lap, arms around neck, hugging his head to her chest, “I am yours and you are mine, up and through the end of time.”

“Did you just write that or did I miss some mid-century poetry in class?”

“I have a creative bone here and there.”

Looking up, he ran his tongue along her throat, two kissed pressed to warm skin, “come on, I need some food.”


End file.
